NHL draft reduced to four rounds?

Many agents who circle around the NHL find the amateur draft to be too long.

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At least that's what Sportsnet insider Elliott Friedman suggested during his latest podcast. 32 Thoughts.

These agents want the selection session to last only four rounds, instead of the current seven. However, according to Friedman, many members of the NHL Players Association would likely agree to this proposal and it could be put on the table during negotiations for the next collective agreement.

“Among the players who did not receive a contract offer [après avoir été repêchés], very few hasty choices. “Most of them are later choices,” Friedman says.

He also adds that players find themselves attached to teams that recruit them sometimes more than four years before turning pro and that some decide to sign elsewhere or simply do not receive an offer on end-of-season day.

This means that all players who are not drafted during the four rounds will become free agents once they are no longer eligible for selection.

If this proposal comes true, it would be the second time since 2005 that the number of rounds in the draft has been reduced. That year, the amateur auction was reduced from nine to seven rounds.

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